37 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Elizabeth Lopatto

Elizabeth Lopatto

Senior Reporter

Senior Reporter

    More From Elizabeth Lopatto

    Reddit is going public and inviting power users to investReddit is going public and inviting power users to invest
    Elizabeth Lopatto, Alex Heath and 1 more
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Swiss company Vestergaard changed the coating on its malaria bed nets — and now malaria cases are soaring.

    The new coating was cheaper, and much less effective. Did Vestergaard disclose the change to malaria control organizations, at least? No.

    “This is a huge embarrassment,” [Tim] Freeman said. [He is a program manager for an organization attempting to eliminate malaria.] “They’ve been distributing, for 10 years, lower quality nets than in the past. No one wants to admit that.”

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    A nation of lurkers.

    I’ve mused before on the correct number of posters and influencers vs lurkers required on text-based social networks — but refrained from commentary on video. (I don’t watch much.) Anyway this survey data suggests my theory applies there too: most people don’t post. That means posters are weird outliers who should be studied in a lab.

    About half of TikTok’s users have never uploaded a video; a normal user hasn’t so much as updated their bio. Why, then, is TikTok successful? Posters.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Substack says it has a million more paid subscribers than last year.

    There are now more than 3 million paid subscribers on Substack. It’s a bright spot for the company, which has lately been in the news for a Nazi problem — leading several big-name newsletters to decamp, including my former colleague Casey Newton’s Platformer.

    The Axios story says nothing about Substack’s biggest problem: keeping its costs under control. (That’s kind of a pattern!)

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Staying on Ozempic for weight loss in the long-term is expensive. Now what?

    One reason GLP-1 drugs are tough for patients to take long-term is the cost... even without a telehealth subscription (expensive in its own right), the drugs are pricey. Doctors tell The Wall Street Journal that insurers are approving fewer patients’ prescriptions. And it’s not yet clear how to get off Ozempic and its ilk without regaining weight.

    The AI frenzy kept investors’ expectations high. The earnings calls disappointed.

    2024 is going to be a year of reckoning for AI.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Do Kwon, the Terra / Luna creator, is coming to a U.S. courtroom to face fraud charges

    He might even arrive in time for the SEC’s fraud lawsuit, which is scheduled to begin jury selection in March. He’s also facing eight criminal counts.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Three Arrows Capital cofounder on jail: “I think it’s definitely good for you.”

    That’s Su Zhu; Kyle Davies is still on the lam. But their woes may not yet be over:

    Among the most incriminating evidence brought forward against Zhu and Davies is a document they sent to at least one creditor as crypto markets were collapsing in May 2022, claiming 3AC had nearly $2.4 billion under management. Both lenders and people close to the liquidators now believe this number was false, grossly overstating the fund’s assets. “We firmly believe they committed fraud.”

    👀

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Matt Levine has some thoughts about Reddit offering its stock to Redditors.

    There are rumors the Reddit IPO is happening soon. Some of the most active Redditors may get the opportunity to buy in at the IPO price. Is a new meme stock in the making? Maybe!

    In the 2020s, some companies are owned in large part by retail investors, and some of those investors are more interested in being part of an online community of investors, and trading jokes and memes, than they are in financial analysis. And you can make those investors happy in less traditional ways, like by giving them popcorn or buying a gold mine or doing a YouTube interview with no pants on.